Project Name: A Home Leftover
Authors: Ego Design Studio
CITATION
Built with frugal means, the house pushes the boundaries of the possibilities for affordable architecture. Conventionally, the architectural endeavour associated with low-cost is also perceptually connected with a sense of spatial and material compromise. However, in this project, the idea of limited means is confronted and an opportunity to create spatial delight from simple materials and playful formal articulations is taken advantage of.
An artful use of reclaimed windows enhances the façade and a grand gesture of the tall, slim door articulates the entrance into the space – an opportunity extracted from a limitation. With repurposed elements and salvage, the architects define the internal space as a single volume with a staircase that provides for a vertical transition sectionally.
An intentional fluidity of space serves for a multiplicity of purpose as the house occasionally becomes a small congregational space for intimate community gatherings; and the private internal space transforms into a public place. The programmatic flexibility implies a sparse layout, and its daily cycle of use imagined across a series of modulated surfaces for perching, standing, sitting, for movement, et al.
The architects carefully map and employ resources to keep the costs in check. However, this seeming constraint is celebrated through resourceful design, and finely articulated details make the experience of using the space comfortable and liberating. The design employs quirk and restraint in a beautiful equilibrium and leaves space for more to come in the future.
In contemporary practice, one often encounters projects with monetary and material constraints and in many cases, this limitation is expressed spatially as scarcity of means. The strength of what architecture can accomplish, in this project, lies in the challenge of resources and the architects employ rigour and design thinking for spatial richness, dignity and delight and therefore, The Home Leftover by Ego Design Studio is a Citation Project for The Merit List.
Images & Drawings: courtesy Ego Design Studio; Photographs: © Out of Focus